August of the Months! (Voting)

Member of the Month: spot ! Spot's imagination blows my mind. She's done such a fantastic job helping to keep the momentum and spirit of the site going -- setting up plots, orchestrating character interactions, putting forth such unique and interesting ideas for characters and scenarios. She's also such a talented writer! It's been a joy to watch her mind at work.

Character of the Month: Shan Yu, as played by Maxine. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the most comfortable when it comes to writing a character that is purely evil; even my most focused villains have a softer, emotional edge to them. But the sheer amount of thought that you've put into him -- every turn of the wheel that drives his actions... you have captured it all so damn WELL. You have such a clear understanding of his motivations, his thought process, and -- most importantly -- his communicable sense of threat. His commands alone in Kneel in Pieces are such a gripping read. Wonderful, wonderful work.

Thread of the Month: Kneel in Pieces. As if there were any other choice. This battle thread has been fast-paced, but such a gripping read and a really cool turning point for the overall narrative of the site. I'm really excited to see where this aftermath takes us!

Couple/Duo of the Month: Lady and Belle . From the moment the idea of this duo was pitched, I was so excited to see where it'd land. And now that we've seen them in action, I'm over the moon. Lady's sweetness and Belle's steadfast warmth play SO well off of one another. They make such a delightful pair of friends, and that delight is only strengthened by how well eddiesand and Persephone write these characters. Half of the fun of participating in Pillars of Sand has simply been reading their interactions and how they work together.

Member of the Month: Spot. I will jump on this bandwagon because she deserves it.

Thread of the Month: Shattered Glass. I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread. When it was suggested to me, because Christopher would be in it, I wondered how they would make a whole thread out of a quick interaction between three characters. Now I see that it has some of the most vivid scene depictions and strong characterizations of any other thread I’ve read on the site so far. They even nail my character! It’s a pleasure to read Cinderella’s firm resolve, Regina’s singleminded manipulation, and Lady Tremaine’s cruel motivation bounce off of one another. Persephone in particular captures Ella in concise posts that feel effortless but must take lots of devotion to analyzing her character.

Couple of the Month: Hands down, Connor and Colleen. It’s already impressive that two original characters have so much love and thought put into them on an individual basis. Add that to the chemistry Maxine and Spot have writing together, and you get a fascinating read. Especially in Kneel in Pieces. What the characters have in common (their tempers, their stubbornness, their hardworking drive) clashes with their motives or feelings about each other. It would be hard to create chemistry (from scratch) in an RP setting where one has to usually write in large amounts to cover everything the character could possibly do or feel before their next turn. But Maxine and Spot tend to write shorter posts and leave space for their characters to interact in a way that seems like real-time to anyone else reading, which takes a patience I don’t often have and works out really well.

Dynamic Duo would be Lady and Belle. Their personalities mesh very well. Lady is coming out of naïveté into motherliness, and Belle’s compassion and situation, where she has to take the lead now that the Beast is gone, feeds into that.

Character of the Month: Evil Queen. Can’t stop reading her posts. Spot does a great job of not settling for the Once Upon a Time version of Regina, but adding background and fleshing out the more Shakespearean villainess we see in Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I particularly love the angle that Regina is a vain scientist obsessed with knowing everything there is to know about magic. That’s there, for sure, in the original film, but I had never thought about it until Spot brought it to light. Kudos to you!

Member of the Month: spot just... has such an amazing feel for all the characters she writes? I can't single out just one, whoever she writes always feels like they fell right out of the movies. She takes into account so many different aspects of their canon and weaves them into such depth of character and unique voice for each one; not just in their dialogue, but in the whole feel of her writing for each. I consistently love seeing all her posts, and always enjoy the chance to bounce my characters off hers!

Character of the Month: Shan Yu , as played by Maxine . She just *gets* this almost feral brute of a man, really knows what's going on behind those yellow eyes, and gives him such a sense of, like? Credible danger? The sense that he's this huge, immovable mountain of a warrior comes through so well in her posts, just as in the movie itself, and his actions and reactions just clinch the deal; she writes him so authentic to the movie, but gives that extra dimension of his thoughts too, which is so fascinating to see.

Thread of the Month: Not to echo the crowd too much... but yeah, can it be anything other than Kneel in Pieces right now? The way everyone in it is so involved; they all have a great grasp of their characters, and their various different processes and reactions in a situation such as this. And the unpredictable element of it, the feeling that, you know, anyone could influence the ultimate outcome. In past experience, battle threads can sometimes feel like they really rest on the shoulders of a few key players, and everyone else is just there to be padding; but not here, this one really feels like every action counts, which is so cool to be part of!

Duo of the Month: Annette and Dodger , totally, as seen in Reddened Rep; I confess, I may be a tad bit biased because I think we all know how I love Annette xD But the way they bounce off each other is really interesting, and feels like it could be the start of a great dynamic there; and plus, both Spot and Seph really knock it out of the park with their characterisations. Dodger's natural 'beat', and the way he's been knocked off it by previous events, with Annette's perky determined attitude... there's a lot of really fun potential in that dynamic, and I look forward to seeing where it will take them!

Member of the Month: Gotta go with our girl spot ! She's such a fantastic writer and such a positive member of the community. It's always a delight to see her talk about characters and their potential in the discord, and the voice she brings to each of her characters is so strong! You can tell how much she cares about each of her characters and the thought she puts in to each of her posts. Keep up the good work, girl!

Character of the Month: Gonna go against the grain here and nominate Cinderella for this month. She's in a terrible position in character, working with the Thorns against her will and separated from her husband, but she's still so strong in the face of everything. I can hear her voice so clearly in Persephone's posts for her, and I love reading her interactions with other characters. Whether she's putting up with the Evil Queen and Lady Tremaine or reaching out to Esmeralda, it's always interesting to see what she'll bring to a thread.

Thread of the Month: Just another echo in the crowd, but I have to give it to Kneel in Pieces. You can practically feel the tension and the chaos in the air in that thread, and it's such a fun battle thread to write for!

Couple/Duo of the Month: I have to give it to Connor and Colleen. They have such history together, and watching the two of them interact makes that all the clearer. They couldn't be more different from each other, and yet they seem to complete each other so well. Keep up the amazing work, Maxy and Spot!